Brake fluid will take paint off like no tomorrow, but I have never used it except on a matrix of cement.

I know an auto painter who "repossessed" a full custom van paint job with brake fluid after the customer stiffed him, sneering, "What're you gonna do ... repo the paint job?" The customer came out the next morning to find his paint job on his driveway.

Chemicals aren't my first choice either- but the poster seemed wary of mechanical means- my first choice would be a sharp scraper- but it takes a practiced hand. I wanted to make the point though that solvents do not touch cured epoxy- at least in my 30 years of working with it I haven't found one that does. And sanding paint and finish has it's own drawbacks with toxic dust and the possibility of going deeper than intended.

yeah, its not an even factory paint job that I can knock down and paint over.. its a thick brushed on job with clear over it that is full of bubbles and high spots. It has to come off or it will continue chipping off and take the new paint with it. Once I hit fiberglass its hard to tell if im taking it off while I scrub away at the paint with sandpaper. I already got a thin spot on the tail that leaked a bit from knocking it down to a sailable finish after I got it, so a decent stripper that wont hurt the epoxy would be best.

Chemicals suck. The best way to take down that paint is with aggressive grit sanding, progressively finer. You won't do damage to the rocker as long as you sand down to the primer and then stop. You might see a beige filler in spots. That's OK, just avoid sanding that, tack cloth to remove all traces of grease and dust, then respray with primer and paint as best you see fit._________________Support Your Sport. Join US Windsurfing!
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Its not (quite) as bad as it sounds...the repair under is solid and the board is still super light. Its a fairly new board, so I want to get rid of the roughness and make it look at least decent, with some graphics. The biggest problem is the clear. I deceided to just go with sanding and do the best I can with it. Hopefully filing in the chips and using a good primer will keep it from chipping as much as it was.

On many of my polyurethane finish jobs that I been doing on wood projects, I'm a firm believer in using a tack cloth. However, using a tack cloth on jobs using resins, I've found that can totally ruin your finishing work. Instead of a tack cloth, I would use acetone, or at minimum, use soapy water followed by clean water using a sponge.

Another thing to keep in mind is using 3M White Acrylic Marine Putty as a fairing material to fill shallow pits, voids and scratches. It sands beautifully and accepts paint very well. Needless to say though, if you are trying to maintain underlying painted graphics, it's not the answer.

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